Sean Michael is On the Bench

Today I welcome another amazing author and Jimmy Barnes fan to On the Bench. Welcome Sean Michael, I am so pleased you could drop by and tell us a little about your up-coming release Flying with Dragons.

Sean Michael is On the Bench

Often referred to as “Space Cowboy” and “Gangsta of Love” while still striving for the moniker of “Maurice,” Sean Michael spends his days surfing, smutting, organizing his immense gourd collection and fantasizing about one day retiring on a small secluded island peopled entirely by horseshoe crabs. While collecting vast amounts of vintage gay pulp novels and mood rings, Sean whiles away the hours between dropping the f-bomb and persuing the kama sutra by channeling the long lost spirit of John Wayne and singing along with the soundtrack to “Chicago.”

A long-time writer of complicated haiku, currently Sean is attempting to learn the advanced arts of plate spinning and soap carving sex toys.

Barring any of that? He’ll stick with writing his stories, thanks, and rubbing pretty bodies together to see if they spark.

Sean’s available for interviews, by the way. He can always be talked into, well talking about himself. Just drop him an email here.

Flying with Dragons

Having annoyed the council, Grunk is assigned the job of Director of Human/Dragon Relations. Unfortunately for Grunk, he hates the city, he’d rather be in his dragon form than his human one, and he already hates the job even though its only his first day.

Then he meets his assistant, Kyfan, and he’s instantly smitten. When he finds out that Kyfan has never really flown and rarely spends any time in his dragon form, Grunk is shocked and insists on changing that, immediately. After all, flying with the lovely Kyfan’s way better than sitting behind his desk in his office.

It turns out that Kyfan is a lovely little dragon and once they’ve flown together, Grunk knows that they share a bond and he prepares to make his claim. The fact that it’s going to annoy the council is only a bonus.

Grunk let the early morning updrafts lift him into the clouds, the vapor wetting his scales as he went through the white haze. For a while he drifted within the mist, flying blind and free, letting the wind take him where it would.

He could feel the heat of the sun as it rose, though, burning off the clouds, and he knew the day was starting in earnest, and while he didn’t really care if he angered the dragon council by not showing up on time for his first day as director of the Dragon-Human Relations Department, he did care about having to stand through another four or five hour lecture on the subject.

The council had some long-winded bastards sitting on it. Grunk could vouch for that.

He circled his way into the city, trying to ignore the way the air always felt different here than it did back home at his cave deep in the mountains. Everything was fresh and cold in the mountains, the patterns of the wind easy to predict, warm updrafts coming naturally from the different levels in the ground below. In the city there was nothing but heat and updrafts, the air smelling of humans and buildings, of steel and concrete.

Eventually he made his way to the tall government building housing his department, and made himself land on the roof, his clawed feet barely making a sound as he settled. He was a dragon through and through, and could be surprisingly agile and easy on his feet for all his size in his natural form.

He shifted, never as at ease as a human as when in his dragon form. The change itself was easy enough, for all he didn’t do it very often, but he was more sensitive to the weather in this form, his ears and eyes didn’t work as well, and he didn’t like feeling small. Though, he had been told that he was large for a human.

Moving into the changing room on the roof, he found his locker and the suit – Jesus, a suit including the fucking tie, was there no end to this indignity? — left there for him. He pulled it out and looked at it for a long moment, seriously contemplating going back out to the roof, shifting and taking off back to his beloved mountains.

He didn’t.

It seemed to take forever to get the shirt on, the buttons feeling impossibly small to his fingers. When he finally got it all on, the suit fit well enough, even if the tie felt like it was going to strangle this shit out of him. Who on this green earth had decided that these things were a good idea? Surely even humans found the tie uncomfortable, if not the rest of the outfit. He felt like a youngling, playing dress-up.

He ran his fingers through his hair — because the humans were uptight about things like having one’s hair lying flat against one’s head and not having dirt smudges on one’s face, and headed to the elevator where he took the moving box to the thirteenth floor. He didn’t like the moving boxes — flying was so much more efficient, but apparently flying in and out of windows was frowned upon in the city.

Once on the thirteenth floor, it was easy enough to find his office given his name was on the door: Grunkavaliavianstadriastusalimanitak, Director Human/Dragon Relations.

Joy.

Hand on the door know, Grunk sighed and turned the handle on the door into his new prison. Bright eyes — blue, then green, then violet — flashed at him, a lovely, little lean lad staring at him from a seat behind a little desk, the lad’s long white hair flowing feely. “Good morning?”

Grunk was utterly surprised. Maybe the job was already filled and this had all been a giant hoax, a joke with him as the butt.

What? A dragon could dream.

“Who the hell are you?” He growled the words out — he was not used to speaking as a human. At any rate, he was pretty sure the growl was his default. He was also ignoring the very pretty eyes. He was.

“I have an assistant?” Huh. Well, maybe not as good as this whole thing being a hoax, but still, an improvement on his day already. Because honestly, he had no idea what his new job entailed, only that the council had insisted he take it. The punishment, should he refuse, had been left vague, but even he could read between the lines well enough to know that it would not be something he would enjoy and would definitely be worse than even this director of human/dragon relations thing.

“Yes, sir. I’m here to help. Would you like a pearl tea?”

By the winds, the little male moved like a dream. His assistant was definitely a dragon, of that he had no doubt and he very suddenly wanted to know what this Kyfan looked like in his true form.

Of the books you have written is there one that holds a special place in your heart and why?

Well, the Jarheads books certainly do. They stayed with me for six novels, several novellas and countless short stories. And they’re still just a thought away. Of all my characters, they are the ones who are right there in my head and at my fingertips if needed.

The men of the hammer club books are also all pretty close to my heart, especially Jim and Marcus and Montana and Billy…

Are you a disciplined writer or do you have to wait for the muse to arrive? Do you have a ritual that gets you in the mood?

I guess you’d say I’m disciplined. While I don’t really outline (I’ve discovered the hard way that outlining kills my desire to actually write the book,) I do write every single day. It doesn’t matter if I’m in the mood or not – I write.

What was the last book you read?

I’m in the middle of reading Mind F*cked by Mia Watts

What are you working on now?

I always have several works in progress open on my desktop at any one time. The boys getting the most attention right now are the new nanny and his man for Mannies Incorporated book 2 and Paul and Jeff from Box of Nails 2.

What genre would you like to try and write that is different from your own?

Horror or Mystery would be fun, but I think you need to be more disciplined as far as outlining and keeping track than I am for those genres.

When you receive edits are you Teary and Disillusioned or Feisty and Focussed?

I’m focussed – I just want to get them back to the editor so I can get back to the writing.

Now for some hard hitters with an Aussie flavour!

A sport /sportsperson that you watch? (C’mon there must be one) OR An embarrassing sporting memory.

This one is easy for me — Michael Phelps, the US Olympic Gold Medalist swimmer. I love his story and just how great he is.

Favourite Aussie Author/Actor /Musician?

I love Jimmy Barnes. I got to see him in concert when I was in Sydney and that totally rocked.

Your view on Vegemite?

I’m sorry, but it’s an abomination! *D – Wow Sean don’t hold back tell us what you really think. Lol!

Formal dinner party or backyard barbeque?

Backyard barbeque, every time.

Adventure holiday or relaxing by the pool?

This one is hard because I do like adventure holiday, but relaxing by the pool also rocks. If I can do both, that’s the best holiday.

Favourite Aussie holiday place or one you’ve always wanted to visit?

The Twelve Apostles along the Great Ocean Road is my absolute favourite place in Australia. But the Great Barrier Reef was also totally amazing, I loved the Blue Mountains and Uluru and Alice Springs (the flying doctors!) were also fantastic. I spent a few months in Sydney on a work visa and loved living on the edge of King’s Cross and walking through Hyde Park to get to work, seeing the opera house and the harbour bridge every day as well. Let’s just say I loved every minute of my stay in Australia and would love to do it again. Only this time I’d also make it to Perth and the west coast. Thank you so much, Donna for having me today!

* D – Glad you managed to see so much of the beautiful country I call home. Unfortunately the Twelve Apostles have been reduced to eight.Good old Kings Cross, I worked there as a waitress when I was sixteen – not my best decision! Sean, you really should see the west coast it’s spectacular.

Thanks for visiting today Sean, it was great getting to know a bit more about you. And what you love and hate about Australia, – “abomination” really? So harsh 😉

Jimmy Barnes rocks and I agree with you about Micheal Phelps – amazing achievement.

3 thoughts on “Sean Michael is On the Bench”

You are a man of many talents, Sean. Love the cover of Flying with Dragons and what a great excerpt.
Awesome intro, Donna.
And the Twelve Apostles reduced to eight, just seems wrong.
Cheers, Sean and Donna,
H K

That’s a pity about the twelve apostles dropping in numbers — they’re truly a stunning piece of nature. Of course, I could say that about most of what I saw of Australia. I think one of the neatest things is that the country itself is so different from Canada.
And I really am sorry about the vegamite. I can’t even smell the stuff without gagging. of course if I hadn’t spread my first taste on toast quite so think, my opinion probably wouldn’t be as harsh as it is — someone should have warmed me that just because it looks like chocolate spread…. 😉
thanks again for the opportunity, Donna